FORT MYERS, Fla. – A career-high nine-strikeouts by Josh Dye led the FGCU baseball team to a 4-2 victory over Evansville Saturday afternoon to secure the season's fifth-straight series win to open the season. With the win, FGCU moved to 12-2 on the season while the Purple Aces fell to 5-7.

"(Dye) was really good today," said head coach Dave Tollett. "Even his last inning, those were good pitches they were hitting, they just happened to fall in. This was by far his best outing and he had command of every pitch. He was out in front all day. We need to come out and play hard tomorrow. This is a really good team and they have great arms. Sweeps aren't easy so we need to come play and earn it."

Moving the start time from 2 p.m. to noon with the threat of rain, the Eagles scored three runs in the first, which proved to be all the Green and Blue would need. Dye's (DeLand, Fla./DeLand HS) best outing of the year witnessed the redshirt-junior retire the first 10 batters and fan nine total to keep the Evansville bats in check. The visitors rallied late with a pair of runs in the seventh but the FGCU bullpen shut the door to complete the victory.

FGCU did all its damage in the first three innings while Dye was cruising, retiring the first 10 Purple Aces. In the first, Marc Coffers (Naples, Fla./Barron Collier HS) once again reached to lead off the FGCU-half. After Gage Morey (West Palm Beach, Fla./PB Central HS) reached on an error and moved to second and third – Coffers on a stolen base and Morey on a passed ball – Richie Garcia (Davie, Fla./West Broward HS) found the gap in left center scoring both. Two batters later, Jay Hayes (Altamonte Springs, Fla./Lyman HS) hit a sacrifice fly to center to bring in Garcia for the third run.

In the third, FGCU loaded the bases and scratched across a run when Hayes hit into a double play, plating Kohl Gilmore (Fort Pierce, Fla./John Carroll HS/Indian River State) for the home side's final run.

Evansville produced its second hit of the sixth but Dye countered, striking out the side to maintain the 4-0 advantage. The Purple Aces did plate two in the seventh, however, in Dye's final inning, before the FGCU bullpen went to work in the eighth.

Tyler Shuck (Cape Coral, Fla./Canterbury HS) and Kenton Hering (Melbourne, Fla./Viera HS/Eastern Florida State College) combined to work the final two innings, each striking out one. Hering worked the ninth for his first save of the season.

Dye (3-0) conceded two runs over his 7.0 innings of work, walking none during that stretch to go along with his nine strikeouts. Of his 105 pitches, 82 were strikes.

UP NEXT
FGCU goes for the series sweep tomorrow at 10:30 a.m.

FOLLOW ALONG
For constant, news, photos, videos and updates you can follow the baseball team on Twitter @FGCU_Baseball, Instagram @FGCU_Baseball or on Facebook: Facebook.com/FGCUBaseball. You can also find FGCU athletics on YouTube by visiting YouTube.com/FGCUEagles.
 
DAVE TOLLETT
In his 16th season, FGCU head coach Dave Tollett has compiled a 545-318-3 record (.626) as the only head coach in the program's history and is coming off the program's first trip to the NCAA Tournament. He is a four-time ASUN Coach of the Year and has guided the Green and Blue to four ASUN Regular Season Championships and one ASUN Tournament Championship. His team has been ranked nationally on several occasions, including as high as #9 in the country in 2017, and has coached 49 All-Conference selections, 29 draft picks, three current major leaguers, 15 current minor leaguers, four ASUN Pitchers of the Year, four All-Americans, three ASUN Players of the Year, one National Freshman Player of the Year, one National Player of the Year and one five-time MLB All-Star.
 
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.